mmag’s main objective is to support the ecosystem of artists in Jordan and the region. The foundation runs a wide-ranging set of programs designed to support contemporary artistic practice, nurture interdisciplinary exploration, and engage local and international communities. These programs — residencies, workshops, exhibitions, public events, and more — support artists, thinkers, and communities in pushing the boundaries of art and knowledge-making. At the core of these programs, and conceived as responsive frameworks, both our short- and long-term residencies are attuned to the evolving trajectories of artistic practice. They offer time, space, and critical context for artists to engage in open-ended exploration—materially, conceptually, and theoretically.
MMAG was founded through a major contribution from the Abu Ghazaleh family, which provided both our physical site and operating budget. That founding gift makes possible the foundation’s growing presence Today, as an independent non-profit cultural institution, mmag sustains itself through a growing mix of support. We receive contributions from individuals, aligned foundations, and partner institutions who believe in the urgency and value of what we do, and are fully in line with our mission, values, and ethical commitments We also generate income through renting out space, and providing residency accommodations. We are committed to building a resilient funding model—one that respects artistic freedom, protects institutional independence, and enables long-term sustainability without compromising our principles. mmag is legally registered with the Jordanian Ministry of Culture. We meet all financial reporting and governance standards, including annual audits. Our financial records are fully documented and publicly accessible.
Like all non-profits, we have a dedicated team who work together to design, realize, and run our programs, initiatives, and facilities. mmag also has a board of directors that is responsible for governance, oversight, etc..
As a cultural institution based in Amman, we hold a direct responsibility to act with integrity. Refusing normalization is one way we assert that responsibility—clearly, unapologetically, and across all aspects of our programming, partnerships, and institutional practice. We are against any collaboration with Israeli artists, institutions, or cultural entities, and we do not engage with individuals or organizations that do. We believe that cultural normalization with Israel is not neutral. It plays an active role in whitewashing occupation, apartheid, and colonial violence. We reject the logic that art and culture exist in a vacuum, divorced from material realities and political accountability. This is not an abstract or selectively applied policy—it is a fundamental ethical position rooted in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their struggle for freedom, justice, and self-determination.
mmag fully supports the BDS movement. We view it as a legitimate and urgently necessary form of nonviolent resistance, rooted in international law and the long-standing tradition of cultural and academic boycott against apartheid regimes. We do not accept funding, support, or partnership from any organization or body identified by the BDS campaign as complicit in Israeli apartheid, occupation, or settler-colonial violence. These criteria are non-negotiable. They guide our decisions around grants, collaborations, programming, and institutional affiliations. In this effect, we ensure all our funders and collaborators also operate within the BDS rules and regulations. But our support for BDS goes beyond compliance—it reflects a deeper alignment with the values of dignity, justice, and collective liberation. We believe in the role of culture as a space of refusal, of reimagining, and of solidarity. We recognize that dismantling systems of domination includes rejecting the infrastructures that uphold them—whether financial, institutional, or cultural. BDS is one form of that rejection. We stand with it, and we stand with Palestine.
Our website and Instagram document the core of our work—past and present programs, residencies, collaborations, exhibitions, and the questions that drive them. You’ll find archives, references, statements, fragments of process, and traces of the conversations we’re part of. We invite you to follow them. A less literate, more literal approach to mmag would be on foot—past the library, through the courtyard, next to the studios, beyond the gallery, and into the work. Our spaces are extensions of our practice, shaped by the people who use them, and the things they are or might be used for. Our grounds are invitational: you are welcome to move through them, observe what is happening, and take the time to sit with the ongoing. Sometimes the best way to meet a thought is to walk into the room where it’s been pacing. Most importantly, whatever path you take, we invite you to engage critically. mmag is not a brand, a building, or a fixed identity—it is a cultural institution in active formation, shaped by its context and by those who challenge and contribute to it. Our programs are public, our spaces are porous, and our positions are neither eternal nor inert. If you have questions or responses—critical or otherwise—you can contact us directly here mail@mmagfoundation.org to start the conversation. We welcome scrutiny, disagreement, and dialogue. Cultural institutions should be accountable, and we are no exception. But above and beyond critique—or perhaps as its highest and most generative form—we welcome creative proposals: new programs, interventions, or contributions to existing ones. If you have something to offer that speaks to our context, challenges our assumptions, or expands our work, we are listening.